GREATER NOIDA :

Manohar Bhat, Head, Sales & Marketing, KIA, talks to TURN OF SPEED about their latest product, the Carnival, their "teething problems" and their plans to enhance customer-satisfaction levels.

TOS: Tell us about your latest launch, the Carnival, people have been comparing it to the Toyota Innova?

MB: The comparisons are odious. This is a new segment that we have created. The KIA Carnival is not only high end, but it is also longer and wider than any of the existing vehicles today. It is really luxurious and extravagant by design because of the features inside. Look at the fit and finish… just the overall package. Look at the seats, Nappa leather, power operated… and all the variants have power sliding doors, a first in India. The rear tail gate is also power operated. All the variants have an automatic eight-speed transmission and a 2.2 BS-VI diesel engine which is a very powerful engine. The best thing about the vehicle is that it looks big but it is one hell of a vehicle if you’re driving it yourself. Chauffer driven also, it is very comfortable inside, and on rough roads too. We tried it on different terrains and it works very well. Also, there is ample ground clearance. A customer who wants this sort of a luxurious vehicle is somebody who knows what he wants in life.

TOS: What is KIA’s strategy to compete with other Chinese brands entering the country? How are you distinguishing yourselves?

MB: Our strategy is not to look at competition. We are KIA and if you look at all our vehicles, we have a particular “KIA DNA” which always comes through. For example, look at the KIA Sonet, it has got the ‘Heartbeat’ DRLs, same signature ‘Tiger nose grille’ and the GT Line. Plus, the features that we are offering are really above than what others are offering. So, the strategy is very simple. We don’t look at what the Chinese, the Indonesians or what the Americans are going to do, we do what we believe is good for the customers. We offer customers not only the product, but even through our network, we are very close to our customers. Right now, we are at 260 odd touchpoints, which will soon be 300. We had the largest network for any new manufacturer. The customer is confident, that wherever, they go in India, KIA is there to support them. People are wondering how the hell have they done 15,000 [units]? Two reasons: One, the product is really kickass, I would say it is a very “Badass” product. Second, through our network, we are very close to our customers. Also, very important to note, is that our vendor partners and our dealer partners, have all been very supportive, so we could quickly ramp up, from one shift to two shifts, so, this way we could increase our production from 7,000 odd units to almost 14,000 units very quickly. No one has done it. So, the entire team has done something that has not been seen in the industry so far, not in India, at least.

TOS: Can you throw some light on the new products that you will be bringing in the coming months?

MB: We are very transparent. We said we will be launching one vehicle every six months this year. We have done that. The first one is the Carnival, the second one is no secret it is the Sonet Concept, and the vehicle will finally look something like what is on display. This is expected in another six months. We keep our promises. By August-September it will be there. 

TOS: Tell us about the numbers that you are targeting?

MB: We don’t keep a number target. The first thing we want to do is to build our brand and build our trust among customers so that we give the best service and we treat the customers well. Our customers now are upper end customers who are very demanding, so more than numbers we are looking at how we can have a very good customer-satisfaction level.

TOS: Talking about customer-satisfaction levels, can you tell us what the customers' experience has been so far because there have been complaints about non-availability of spares, etc?

MB: There are always teething problems and we are trying to fix every problem as soon as it crops up. There were some issues, and now with Corona Virus coming in, I’m not sure how it will affect us as well as other companies, but most companies have got some Korean in a sub-vendor or vendor pipeline. I don’t know how it is going to be, but I keep my fingers crossed. However, by and large, we have handled it very well considering that we have ramped up volumes. I’m not sure any other company has done 15,000 [units] in such a short span. So, considering all this, whatever teething problems we’ve had, infact, I wouldn’t even call it a teething problem, it is more of a pin-prick, but like I said, our focus is to keep the customers very happy all the time. So, whatever issues we’ve had, we’ve taken them up very seriously and by and large they have been tackled.